Does Carbon Copy Cloner Copy the EFI Partition?

[elfcake]

@NZRichard,

When you format/erase a drive using the GPT partition scheme, a EFI partition will automatically be created, its part of the standard, does not matter if main system partition is HFS+, APFS or other ...

Procedure to create bootable backup :-

• Erase/Format Target drive using Disk Utility, ensure you use GPT partition scheme, select HFS or APFS
• Clone existing MacOS partition to Target drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper
• Mount Source EFI partition
• Mount Target EFI Partition
• Copy EFI folder form Source to Target using Finder

There really is no need to use fancy scripts or extra software to copy/backup the EFI folder, it's just very basic file/folder management that anyone who can use Finder should be able to do.

Cheers
Jay

Geez! Why did I pay for Acronis?!?! It is still not up to date for 10.15. @jaymonkey thank you for the "simple" instructions. I had much trouble with CCC early on with the script not functioning (or I didn't read the instructions properly).

 

[vamzi21]

Hello guys, i have another senario- i need to clone my hack system so that i could mount it from extrrnal ssd on a mac pro late 2013. Does this means that the use of ccc is enough and the clone would be bootable as is? The system is 10.9.5 and i cant recall clover version but it is from the same era.

 

[itepfoto]

Neophyte here. I made the mistake of trying to an incremental update for my MacOS Mojave 10.14.4 and on restart my hackintosh would not boot. I have a CCC duplicate drive and was able to get the machine running from that drive (Clover shows the backup drive to be HFS as opposed to APFS of the original). My question is, can I use CCC to restore my broken drive? BTW everything on the broken drive is still there, so I was able to backup vital files. I have a TM drive too, but I doubt that will be of any benefit. Thanks.

 

[elfcake]

Neophyte here. I made the mistake of trying to an incremental update for my MacOS Mojave 10.14.4 and on restart my hackintosh would not boot. I have a CCC duplicate drive and was able to get the machine running from that drive (Clover shows the backup drive to be HFS as opposed to APFS of the original). My question is, can I use CCC to restore my broken drive? BTW everything on the broken drive is still there, so I was able to backup vital files. I have a TM drive too, but I doubt that will be of any benefit. Thanks.

The short answer is no. CCC will create an EFI partition with nothing in it. There is a script that can be used but the process below also works.
If the “broken” drive has an EFI partition but it is not populated by the needed folders then the drive will not function. You will need to copy the efi folder into the EFI partition on the new drive. CCC does not automatically copy the efi folder to the EFI partition. The easiest way (for me) is, once you have cloned the original drive to the new drive is open the EFI partition on the new drive and copy the contents of the original drive’s EFI to the new drive. I hope this is not too redundant.

 

[itepfoto]

Correction! I just realized it is probably just as easy for me to start from scratch and install Catalina on the start-up drive. Fresh install is good right? Besides, what else do I have to do. Thanks again for the advice. I will make sure the next CCC backup includes the EFI.

Thanks. Excuse me while I spell out what I think I need to do. I guess I need a diagram... my former startup drive "Mojave" was corrupted. I was able to boot from my cloned drive "untitled" which contains everything that was on "Mojave". Now I plan run CCC and follow directions to restore the broken drive aka "Mojave".

I guess I am confused here -- you are saying the newly restored "Mojave" disk will not boot until I insert the EFI file? I guess I can still boot from "untitled" and then move the EFI to the restored "Mojave", right? Can I cut and paste the EFI files (or do I use EFI Mounter v2 to move the EFI) from "untitled" or do I use the saved EFI my broken "Mojave"?

I love my hackintosh, but I perhaps I am too dense to follow these simple steps (do you have the number for Apple so I can order a new iMacPro?)

 

[rojarrolla]

I've Never, ever succeeded cloning my drive, what I normally do is install OSX, install multibeast and once done, restore my last backup from time machine (an attached USB drive running time machine backups is a must when using a hack!)

Cheers.

 

[elfcake]

I've Never, ever succeeded cloning my drive, what I normally do is install OSX, install multibeast and once done, restore my last backup from time machine (an attached USB drive running time machine backups is a must when using a hack!)

Cheers.

There is an easy way to solve the problem. First, CCC does create the EFI partition. Second, it does not copy the efi folder with all of the stuff needed to boot a hackintosh (without the additional code). You can simply copy your efi folder from the drive you are copying to the new drive’s EFI partition. This has worked for me and many other Hackintoshers.

 

[toothpix]

You can simply copy your efi folder from the drive you are copying to the new drive’s EFI partition. This has worked for me and many other Hackintoshers.

I too am looking to backup my main drive which hosts OS and Applications - I've found this thread very helpful and am looking forward to making a bootable drive with SuperDuper and manually copying the EFI partition's contents. The idea is that if anything goes haywire, I can 1) boot off the backup drive, 2) open SuperDuper and EFI Mounter (in the backup drive's applications folder), and 3) overwrite the nonworking drive's contents with the backups.

Is it a bad idea to do this all on a USB stick? I have a 128 GB USB stick that I'd like to dedicate for this purpose, but I'm wondering if this is a better suited task for a partition of my 2TB USB External SSD. Would it be excruciatingly slow to do it all on the USB stick? Other issues? Thanks.

 

[toothpix]

Procedure to create bootable backup :-

• Erase/Format Target drive using Disk Utility, ensure you use GPT partition scheme, select HFS or APFS
• Clone existing MacOS partition to Target drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper
• Mount Source EFI partition
• Mount Target EFI Partition
• Copy EFI folder form Source to Target using Finder

I believe I correctly followed these steps (used Super Duper), but when I open EFI Mounter, it does not give me an option to mount my target drive's EFI partition - the app doesn't see it?

Target drive is 1 of 3 partitions on a 2TB External USB SSD. The partition container disk is an APFS Container (disk5), and the partition itself is an APFS Volume (disk5s1).

No disk5s1 showing in EFI Mounter:

Where did I go wrong?

UPDATE:
Okay, so EFI Mounter still does not see my target EFI partition . . . but I see a new EFI partition mounted on my desktop and showing up in finder.

I copied contents of one EFI partition to the target partition and I was able to select my USB drive's UEFI partition at bootup and get into Clover! . . . but how do I know which one is my external drive's Mac OS?:

This took me to a screen that looks like when you are installing the OS and you want to use disk utility.

This one didn't work - got the black screen with the white circle with a cross through it (no bootable drive).

Haven't tried this one, but doesn't seem right.

Boot macOS from Mojave is my primary SSD drive hackintosh - not the backup.

Also haven't tried this one but also doesn't seem right.

I'm getting to this Clover screen by booting off my external USB drive, but which one is the bootable backup on my external usb drive? None seem to be the obvious choice. The only ones I haven't tried are the second and third from left to right - is the firevault prebooter or install prebooter my backup?

 

[jaymonkey]

when I open EFI Mounter, it does not give me an option to mount my target drive's EFI partition - the app doesn't see it?

@toothpix,

I've never had much success with EFI Mounter ... I ditched it years ago.

A far superior (IMHO) App is EFI Agent which is written by the same devloper as Hackintool :-

EFI Agent v1.3.2 (menu bar utility)

Simple, low resource, efficient and no frills tool to mount EFI partitions. Features: Shows EFI disks to mount / unmount and open in Finder Shows disk icons and color-coded partition scheme Shows boot EFI partition (uses IODeviceTree:/chosen/boot-device-path if...

www.tonymacx86.com

Once installed it runs in the menu bar allowing you to qucikly mount and unmount any partition (not just EFI).
If you click on the cog icon you can configure it to auto load at boot time mening that you will always have quick access to it .. its super useful if you work a lot with EFI partitions like I do.

Hackintool also has the same feature baked into it (on the "Disks") page but is obvusly not quite as acesscable as EFI Agent.

Cheers
Jay